The Irish Banking and Culture Board (IBCB) has launched its Guide to the Basic Bank Account with advice for particularly vulnerable customers on how to apply for a bank account as part of efforts to support inclusion and accessibility in the banking sector.
IBCB, a joint initiative from the five retail banks to help the sector regain public trust, said qualitative research undertaken in 2020 showed a clear need to raise awareness of the basic bank account as a first step towards inclusion across society.
IBCB sought the views of groups that support marginalised and vulnerable groups who experience difficulty accessing banking products to better understand their needs, finding that bank accounts "financially empower customers in a vulnerable position, supporting peoples’ financial freedom and provide dignity and access to a better life for many."
All retail banks in Ireland, including IBCB member banks, provide a basic bank account with the same core features; receiving money, making payments, making lodgements and withdrawals, and debit card.
Angela Black, an IBCB board member, said: “This guide is of vital importance and a positive response from the banking sector to help prevent financial exclusion for many people in Ireland. The Guide to the Basic Bank Account is a user-friendly source of key information to support customers."
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She continued: “Banks have listened and are responding to the needs of those who have found opening a bank account challenging, due to their specific personal circumstances.
"By providing this helpful guide, which promotes an important service, banks are demonstrating in a practical manner, their support for marginalised members of our community, those dealing with domestic or societal challenges that have impacted their lives, and those excluded by the language barrier.”
The guide has been translated into Arabic, French, Lithuanian, Polish, Pashto, Urdu, Portuguese, and Mandarin, removing language as a barrier to many who are seeking to apply for a basic bank account.
IBCB has also partnered with Safe Ireland and TASC in providing funding, banking expertise and support with bespoke financial resilience training to victims of domestic abuse.
"Safe Ireland warmly welcomes the publication of a Guide to the Basic Bank Account by the Irish Banking Culture Board. Central to intimate coercion and the use of violence is the desire to access and control finance," Safe Ireland CEO Mary McDermott said.
"It is a well-evidenced means of abuse and often engenders financial illiteracy in those targeted. Frequently, the disempowering effects of financial illiteracy become a part of that cycle of abuse. This guide is an important, very clear support for people who find themselves locked out from financial access and in challenging, vulnerable positions."
Photo: (L- R) John Healy, Head of Transactional Banking Products, KBC; Jennifer Hughes, Head of Customer Policy IBCB; Ross Moore, Financial Inclusion Lead, Bank of Ireland; Ciara Drain, Head of Customer Vulnerability, AIB; Marion Kelly, CEO IBCB; Jeff Harbourne, Head of Savings & Personal Banking, Permanent TSB. (Pic: Conor McCabe)
